The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine Read Free Book Online Page A

saw her clenched fists and the vein throbbing in her forehead. At the door she turned and started toward the window.
    The rest of us watched in strained silence.
    By the fifth crossing she was breathing hard. She kept going for three more lengths, however. My legs ached and I gasped along with her. I had to bite my tongue to keep from begging her to rest.
    She stopped. “Do you think that’s enough, Addie? Rhys? Do you think I’m beating back Sir Gray Death?”
    I was afraid she’d collapse, but I said, “I think Sir Gray Death hasn’t met your like before.”
    Rhys agreed, and Milton helped her to bed.
    “Bella, would you give us our lesson here today? I want it just as if—I want it. Tomorrow we’ll be back in the library. Tomorrow—”
    “You should rest,” Bella said. “That’s today’s lesson—when people are sick, they rest.”
    “Addie thinks I shouldn’t let Sir Gray Death gain sway over me.”
    “She can’t give in,” I agreed, hoping I was right. “I think we should have our lesson. Can you go over the end of Drualt and the monsters’ assaults on Bamarre?” If anything could fortify Meryl against the Gray Death, that would.
    Milton said a lesson would do no harm, so Bella called for servants to bring books and a table from the library. Rhys left us to go to the king’s councillors.
    The servants brought in three chairs and arranged them around the table. Meryl walked the two paces to the table in ten slow, small steps. She sat, breathing hard. I unclenched my hands and saw white nail marks on my palms.
    Bella opened Gryphons, Ogres, and Dragons: The Bamarrian Wars with Monsters . She took her spectacles out of her reticule and assumed her governess voice. “I hope you remember that King Alfred was the first king whose records have come down to us.” She began to read. “‘When he had been king for three years, a tribe of ogres laid waste . . .’”
    In the First Ogre War, it had taken King Alfred five years to drive a horde of ogres back to the Eskern Mountain Range, which formed our northern border. During the reign of Alfred’s nephew, King Alfred II, the dragon Vollys began the raids on villages in the Bamarrian Plains that had gone on to this day.
    When Bella paused, Meryl said, “Addie, do you remember what I said when Vollys carried off that farmer last year?”
    I shook my head. I did remember, though. But I wouldn’t have been able to say it without weeping.
    “I said I’d slay Vollys someday and eat her eggs in an omelet.” Meryl took a deep breath. “I’ll still slay her. I hope you’re listening, Sir Gray Death. I’ll still do it.”
    “You’ll do it!” I said, wanting to keep her spirits up. And my own.
    “Meryl,” Bella said, “a dragon would catch you as quick as look at you, illness or no. Vollys . . . Listen. It’s in this very lesson.” She began a long list of the dragon’s depredations—farms burned, livestock eaten on the spot, families carried off, knights roasted in their armor, castles plundered. And all the humans—dead, or never seen again.
    Bella passed on to the Second Ogre War. At first Meryl sat straight in her chair and asked questions or offered opinions. But after a quarter hour she became silent, and her hand came up to grip the tabletop.
    She mustn’t fall again! I stood. At the same moment Milton put down his knitting and went to her.
    “You’ll be no worse for resting,” he said.
    She nodded. “I think I’d be more comfortable in bed.”
    Bella closed her book.
    “Don’t stop the lesson.” Meryl leaned on Milton’s shoulder for the short trip to the bed.
    I wondered if fighting the Gray Death was weakening her, or if she’d be even weaker if she weren’t fighting.
    Or if the Gray Death was in charge, and nothing else mattered.

Chapter Nine
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    “S AY THE END OF Drualt , Bella,” Meryl said as Milton tucked the blankets around her. “That will give me heart.”
    “Wouldn’t you rather sleep a bit?”
    Meryl